Star Tribune Redesigns Newspaper and Website

Minneapolis/St. Paul - (October 12, 2005) - With its Wednesday, October 12 edition the Star Tribune rolled out a comprehensive redesign of its newspaper and website featuring more than 100 enhancements focused on meeting changing reader needs.

“This is an ambitious reinvention of the Star Tribune and StarTribune.com, driven by what our readers tell us is most important to them in today’s busy and crowded media world,” said Anders Gyllenhaal, Star Tribune editor and senior vice president for news. “Our main goal is to be more relevant and deeper in our coverage while, at the same time, being easier to read and more engaging.”

Gyllenhaal said the redesign focuses on presenting news and information in compelling new ways, through use of summaries, alterative storytelling forms, navigational devices and graphics, in addition to numerous changes to design and typography. Also, new sections and beats have been added and existing sections have been reworked.

The enhancements include a new six-days-a-week lifestyle section called “Source” that features a different topic area each day in the general categories of people, style, health, how-to, entertainment and relationships. And on Sunday, a new showcase style section called “Signature” will cover topic areas such as lifestyle trends, style, design, eating out, entertaining, nightlife and fitness. A new “World” section will appear two days a week to address the increasing interest in international events, and local and regional news will be substantially repackaged in the “Twin Cities + Region” section.

Additionally, there will be improvements in business and health coverage, the weather page, obituaries, people coverage, the movie guide, online calendars, the online search engine and Internet reporting.

Gyllenhaal also stressed that a major goal of the redesign is to better integrate the newspaper and the website so that each complements the strengths of the other. “In addition to redesigning our website from top to bottom, we also have retooled our newsgathering operations to ensure that we are the number-one source of breaking news in the Twin Cities 24 hours a day.”

About the Star Tribune

The Star Tribune Company, a news and information company serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is owned by The McClatchy Company of Sacramento, Calif. (NYSE:MNI). The Star Tribune newspaper is one of the top 20 largest newspapers in the nation, with a daily circulation of 378,316 and a Sunday circulation of 655,198 (per Audit Bureau of Circulation report 03/05). The company’s Web site, www.StarTribune.com, is the most frequently used local news and information service for the Twin Cities market. The Star Tribune Foundation has been supporting Twin Cities’ communities since 1945 and currently distributes about $3 million annually. On the Net: The Star Tribune Company: www.startribunecompany.com/company/, and The McClatchy Company: www.mcclatchy.com.

Contact Ben Taylor
Phone: (612) 673-7457
Email: btaylor@startribune.com